Chris Grayling: The Compulsive Liar at the Heart of Government

There appears to be little agreement amongst psychiatrists as to whether compulsive or pathological lying is a genuine personality disorder, whether it is a symptom of another condition, or whether in fact, some people are just lying bastards.

One thing seems clear which is if it is left untreated it can develop into a delusional state in which the individual barely knows whether they are telling the truth themselves. For some people lying becomes the default position, and this is compounded by the need to keep lying to maintain past deceptions.

This of course can be devastating for both the individual and the people around them. Compulsive liars may often be little more than harmless eccentrics or pub bores, but many of them manage to lie themselves into positions of responsibility. This is the case with Employment Minister Chris Grayling who has resorted to ever more outrageous falsehoods, even risking his career recently by lying to the Parliamentary Committee on Work and Pensions.

Grayling’s decline seemed to accelerate in 2009. Back then Grayling was Shadow Home Secretary, and tipped to be a big wheel in government should the Conservatives return to power. After a single visit to the Moss Side area of Manchester, Grayling claimed the area was in a state of urban war, comparing it to the fictional depiction of Baltimore in television’s The Wire. Manchester has a population almost five times that of Baltimore, yet Baltimore has a murder rate around seven times higher than the Northern city.

Shortly after this the expenses row blew up and Grayling did not fare at all well. At one point Grayling claimed for two mortgages, one on his large family home in Surrey, just a short commuter trip from London, and another on his posh flat in Pimlico. Grayling also owns two buy to let properties within the M25. In 2005 he carried out extensive renovations on his Pimlico flat and to pay for them claimed almost close to the maximum annual allowance for MPs. This wasn’t quite enough however and a year later he was back claiming thousands more for work done the previous year. Had he not spread the cost over two years he would have been unable to claim the full amount. He explained away this discrepancy by pleading that his “decorator has been very ill and didn’t invoice me until now.”

Only a year later Grayling was at it again. This time he claimed that violent crime had soared under the Labour Government. Grayling had deliberately chosen to ignore the change in the way crime had been recorded which led to a furious rebuke from the UK National Statistics Authority. The chairman of the authority, Sir Michael Scholar, was forced to write to Grayling accusing him of misleading the public and risking damage to public trust in official statistics.

His most famous gaffe came a month later. Grayling was recorded saying he supported the right of B&B owners to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples. This drew condemnation from across the political spectrum with calls for his resignation. Cameron was incensed that the true face of Tory bigotry had been revealed to the public and Grayling all but disappeared from public life until after the current Government weren’t elected in 2010.

As ever Grayling attempted to squirm his way out of the scandal claiming: “I am sorry if what I said gave the wrong impression, I certainly didn’t intend to offend anyone… I voted for gay rights”

No-one accused him of giving the wrong impression, we all know what the Tories are really like. Theyworkforyou.com reveals that in truth Grayling has voted moderately against gay rights, voting against the initial legislation to establish civil partnerships, against fertility treatment for gay couples and was absent from the vote on repealing the notorious Section 28.

It was upon his appointment to Employment Minister however that Grayling’s pathological deceptions really began to take hold. An early scandal emerged over the private companies given lucrative contracts to carry out the flagship ‘Work Programme’. Deloitte Ingeous were listed as preferred bidders by Grayling and went on to win a contract worth almost a billion pounds. Grayling had previously received a donation worth £27,978 from Deloitte. Grayling for once remained tight lipped on the affair which Labour Minister John Robertson claimed could be a breach of the ministerial code.

When the workfare row broke out two months ago Grayling found himself repeatedly forced into the public eye and he began to fib and bluster like never before. It is now impossible to know whether people are mandated to workfare for private companies on the Work Programme as Grayling says one thing yet his department claims quite another. DWP officials have been reduced to rewriting documents and ‘disappearing’ freedom of information requests to cover up for Grayling’s dishonesty. Grayling claimed that under the last Government people who undertook work experience lost their benefits when in fact (to their shame) it was Labour who introduced workfare. Spurious claims about 20,000 young people finding work due to the Tory’s Work Experience scheme were never backed up. He was humiliated on Channel 4 news when he pleaded to his interviewer to look into his eyes and see that he wasn’t lying. This was in response to his claim that the Government’s Work Experience was completely voluntary despite Channel 4 news presenting a letter from the DWP which confirmed that this was far from the case.

Last month he deliberately ignored the number of people who successfully appealed decisions which had declared them fit for work and stripped them of vital benefits. The DWP published a press release which dishonestly claimed over a third of those assessed were Fit For Work, a number which omitted the growing number of appeals.

When Paul Farmer, the Chief Executive of mental health charity Mind quit an advisory panel on the Government’s Work Capability Assessment recently, Grayling’s pathetic response was to pretend he was going to sack him anyway. Farmer had said the assessment was unfit for purpose, whilst Grayling alleged his position was untenable because Mind were suing the DWP. According to Mind no such court case was on the cards.

None of the other members of the committee have yet commented on Graying’s lies, although they have been informed. This may be down to the fact that the lazy bastards are on holiday again.

It is clear that Grayling is out of control. The DWP is fast becoming a laughing stock whilst insiders say the system is in meltdown behind the scenes. With a Minister in charge who seems to be making things up as he goes along, it is little wonder that the no-one in the department seems to know, or even care, what’s going on anymore.

When people lie compulsively a day of reckoning is never far away. Deceptions can only be maintained for so long until eventually the whole charade comes crashing down around them. Grayling has been very quiet the last couple of weeks. His initial swagger is all but non-existent these days. Some have claimed his career is hanging by a thread.

The rows over Atos and the WCA, along with workfare, are still generating headlines. Universal Credit is a train crash waiting to happen. It will no doubt be entertaining to watch Grayling attempting to wriggle and squirm his way out of trouble yet again. You can hardly blame him. He’s just doing what’s always come naturally, and he’s been well rewarded by Cameron in the past.

It is a weak leader who allows such a dishonest and malevolent influence in their ranks. Grayling has been a continual embarrassment to the Tory Party and Cameron has still cheered him from the sidelines. The Prime Minister looks unable even to control his own ministers. If a lying, cheating, scheming, money-grabbing bastard like Grayling is the best the Tories can come up with to ram raid through welfare reform then it reveals a party desperately lacking in talent. Still, with Grayling on board, at least you can’t accuse them of a lack of imagination.

When you list all his offences against British Citizens its a wonder he is not encased in the tower of London as a traitor…….. and Scamerson and all the rest of the evil bastards are as much to blame by allowing it to happen.

Except you can, because he’s not even a very good liar – as your thorough compilation of quotes documents. His lies aren’t well thought through; they tend to be reactive and easily undermined, not to mention thoroughly obvious. Precious little evidence of anything truly imaginative there at all.

Keep lying to maintain past deceptions. Yes yes yes Minister. The truth is out there. Ifyou know what I mean.
But he is not the only one who it seem’s tells lies to maintain past deception’s. this and the fact I’m being abused and grossly neglected the more I complain this along with many a provable ‘LIE’. Lies deciet disinformation to their partners to pretend to all they are honest and supportive while in my real world I suffer in daily. One day the truth will be all out there. If you know what I intend.

Those in charge of service provision and you could add the Government can do huge damage if they lie and decieve. it can cost innocent/vulnerable life’s. but just why do they LIE. Just how easily they get away with it. but why is this so. for people in very important public roles.????

Another group that probably would struggle to find a good word to say about Chris Grayling is FACK (Families Against Corporate Killers) at http://www.fack.org.uk/ This group consists of people who have lost loved ones to workplace accidents and industrial disease. The group has made numerous attempts to meet Mr. Grayling to explain why the UK needs stronger health and safety laws, not weaker ones. Sadly he is habitually too busy meeting bosses who want to increase profits rather than the workers who face losing their lives because of safety shortcuts.

Thanks for that link it is very interesting as I had never heard of them and have often wondered as far as the sick, disabled, and workfare are concerned they must pose a significant health and safety threat in the workplace because of their illnesses.

We Should realise that David Cameron may be many things but he
is not Stupid. He is in fact the Hand Behind the Idiot. We may direct our outrage towards Grayling, as Grayling Sweats Blubs and Errs on TV,
(The Mister Punch of Current UK Politics), carefully implementing the Directives from above.
When people finally are Awakened to the Pure Evil of current Tory Doctrine, Grayling may be the one who will be “Spending more time with his family”
but the hateful plans of the Tories will quietly carry on.
I am honestly truely terrified.

I understand what you are saying as I too am afraid of where all this is going. What bothers me is there is no respect, empathy or compassion from these b….rds yet most have experiences of sick family members so know what it is like. If we are simply going to hold a view that any time after a member of society is unable to work and pay taxes anymore they are killed off in one way or another what sort of life can we all look forward to as nobody knows what fate holds in store for the future with regards illness and everyone gets old.

Typical sly reporting ‘billions lost to fraud and error’, without admitting that their OWN screwups are the majority of the losses, and not mentioning that unclaimed benefits by those who don’t know or understand their entitlements utterly dwarves the pittance being defrauded.

‘Billions lost to fraud and error’ is up there with ‘Billions spent on office biscuits and the military budget’, sure only a fiver was spent on biscuits, but who’s going to read that far into the small print when the headline sounds so bad?

And of course on Panorama he could say with a straight face that there are no targets for ESA assessments. There are norms based on “forecasts”, and ATOS won’t let the assessors deviate from them, but no, they aren’t “targets”, honest.

I hate to be a pedant (no, really).
Grayling is not a compulsive liar, he is lying to benefit himself, which would make him a pathological liar. Compulsive liars often don’t realise they are lying and their lies often don’t have any real purpose.
‘Workcamps’ Grayling lies in order to agrandise himself and to further his own agenda which often tends to indicate some form of psychopathic or narcissistic personality disorder.
From what we know about the man, his past, his poltical beliefs and his behaviour while in office I think it would be a reasonable assessment to say that he has Antisocial Personality Disorder with pronounced narcissistic tendencies.
But, of course, by way of a disclaimer, that’s just a hypothetical assessment without access to a case history.
However, with the damage he and is ilk have done to the NHS I would welcome the opportunity to get him in a secure unit for a few weeks of observation.

Can you be my psychiatrist please?! Mine has absolutely no knowledge or understanding of this kind of thing which I find shocking. And no sense of humour. Still, at least she’s not talking to me. Much love xx

Reblogged this on disabilityservitude and commented:
It seems to me that it is Chris Grayling who is the feckless scrounger. I understand its been reported that he files an expenses claim for the sandwich he eats every lunch time. Well Mr. Grayling isn’t it nice that the public pay for your lunch while your earning an large wage for telling ongoing porkies. My children are starving thanks to your departments deceptions.

I fear this bloody lot this Winter-I’m looking ahead now because I know what these nasty parasitic barsteds are capable of because I suffered the years of the Thatcher Regime unlike some of the teenagers now-God help us all if they stay in power a long time.

This article is poetry. It has made my day.
I really do wish it wasn’t true and that the people in charge of the welfare of the most vulnerable people in the country could know what feelings are and experience empathy. I might as well wish for the moon on a stick.

Here’s a blog post from Mind about someone who almost lost her boyfriend to the horrors of the Work Capability Assessment. It was part of their advertising of last night’s Panorama which actually used the correct fraud figures and gave those who are suffering the most a chance to speak out. They had to give the pathological liar his right to reply in which he lied his pants off.http://www.mind.org.uk/blog/7176_how_i_almost_lost_my_boyfriend_to_the_wca

Don’t worry; when the government gets its way on the resignation of senior civil servants after an election, and the appointment of those who will push policy through, Grayling will have a department to substantiate rhe truth of his lies!!!

Excellent article. But the only thing I would dispute is that Grayling is not an embarassment to the tories. In fact I don’t even think they care anymore how they are perceived. Grayling is pure blue throuhg and through and they love it. Nothing else could explain their naked ambition regarding the destruction of people’s lives through their war on claimants.
If the guy came up and introduced himself to me, I’d demand to see proof of ID, that’s how mendacious he is.
I don’t just want the cunt out of goverment, I want him out of our society. He can fuck off to America, they love this shit over there.

Loathsome piece of filth.
He should be prosecuted, I wouldn’t represent him but I probably wont have a job by then. He deserves no choice of who would represent him because he clearly hasn’t the intelligence to choose, in any event, he’s clearly guilty so why waste public money on him. We need to see his porcine head on a spike on Tower Bridge !

This is politics my friend. Politicians can not tell the truth because the population as a whole don’t want to hear it so they have to use half truths.

The harsh reality is the left are the worse at it as we saw countless times during the last Government. And even now in opposition they oppose everything they can for the sake of opposing. They realise they can’t get back into power by agreeing so naturally they will just say the opposite untiil the public are ready to believe them again. And to top it all off they do it under the premise of helping the “little man”. ugg!

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